Putting a price on words
– How much?
How do you put a value on words?
What did Nike pay for Just do it – three short words all freely available in the dictionary? $1 million? $10 million? Certainly not 80 cents a word.
So why is it likely that Nike paid a fortune for these three short words?
Nike didn’t pay for words. Instead they got priceless steppingstones to feelings and thought.
The right words do this cleverly, so they are remembered and shared. Credit is given to their creator, who makes new customers moved by images and feelings conveyed by these words. If someone requests a per-word rate I’ll quote for a phone book.
Buying words by the line, or the yard, is a crime against communication. Powerful communication is not a function of word count. Before going to market for a writer think about your audience. Then ask these questions.
You’ll end up needing a story of some sort. But specifying a word count is pointless, because all you really want is to make your audience believe in something new. Who knows, you may not even need a writer.
